Driveway work at Codman Estate sets the stage for ha-ha restoration
Over time, the driveway leading from Codman Road has strayed from linear to curvilinear as cars, pulling off the drive to avoid hemlock branches, have created new pathways. This undulating road edge takes away from the effect of a formal entry to the Codman Estate and the direct view to the main house that visitors were intended to experience.
- Work has begun to straighten the entry drive.
Using the piers at the western Codman Road entrance, historic photographs, the physical terrain, and road and soil composition as guides, we determined the original location of the straight roadway. Some of the overhanging hemlock branches, the cause of the swerving vehicles, were trimmed in order to facilitate moving the road back to its original location. Work began on July 1, 2010, to reestablish the original road location and resurface the road.
- The pink lines show where the sides of the drive should be located.
With the road soon to be a consistent distance from the ha-ha wall, work will begin on the wall restoration. The first step will be to raise the wall in certain areas to provide a consistent height. Once the wall has been repaired, the earthwork will begin to raise the soil up to the top of the wall. The original ha-ha earthwork detail included an approximately three-foot grassy “shoulder” along the driveway which then rose to meet the top of the wall. Using historic photos, the angle has been approximated and a mock-up has been built on site. After the soil is in place, the entire area will be seeded.
A ha-ha wall is an eighteenth and nineteenth-century landscape detail, made popular in English country estates, that creates a visual illusion. The wall itself is a retaining wall separating two levels of lawn space. The upper level is usually the formal side with the country house, while the lower level is often a meadow or field with animals grazing. From the house, the view into the field is uninterrupted as the grassy lawn runs right to the top of the retaining wall and the eye is then carried into the field without interruption. But the cows or sheep in the meadow cannot access the upper level because an elevation change and retaining wall stand in their way.
The Codman ha-ha wall is a variant on the theme. The berm, or raised barrier, we need to restore creates a slope to the top of the retaining wall as opposed to a traditional flat expanse of lawn, but the result will be the same. When standing on the house side of the wall and staring into the octagon, your eye will follow the grassy berm into the meadow beyond without interruption.
Much of this work is being funded through an anonymous donation in support of the Preservation Maintenance Fund. Please consider supporting our preservation, restoration, and maintenance projects.
